


The Craft for Perfection

by DoubleYouPersonality



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Captivity, F/M, Henry is nine in this, Kidnapping, Mild Language, Sacrifice, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 05:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17843420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoubleYouPersonality/pseuds/DoubleYouPersonality
Summary: A new BATIM AU is born; the Child!Henry AU!!!When Henry's father takes Henry to Joey Drew Studios, things take a turn for the worst. Can Henry escape the depths of the studio and reunite with his father?You can do a reading of this, but only if you credit and show the reading to me. Ty~!





	The Craft for Perfection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry Stein, the son of Joey Drew Studios' head animator, has fallen into the depths of the studio.

It was a Saturday morning at around 10:24 A.M. EST in mid-June of 1944 when a young man, who went by the name of Hans Stein, was walking to work to an animation workshop known as Joey Drew Studios. Hans was a young German immigrant at the age of 36 who was the lead animator at the studio. He had inky black hair, greenish-blue eyes, and a slight scruff on his chin. He wore a lightish-gray long-sleeve shirt under a black button-up vest, grayish-black pants that went down to the ankles and shiny black shoes.

Hans was in charge of making sure the animation shots were on time and ready for editing, not that he didn’t draw either. He is an artist after all. Joey Drew Studios was known for many cartoons, but their most famous was the cartoon series of Bendy the Dancing Demon.

Bendy, as the name implies, was a short little devil with a pep in his step. He had two short horns and a widow’s peak, a bright white bowtie, two buttoned gloves, tap-dance shoes, and a wide, cartoon-like smile that everyone loved. Hans took great pride in his work, but despite his effort, he never seems to get any credit for it.

His employer and founder of the studio, Joey Drew, was known as ‘a man of only ideas’ and took most of the credit for the cartoons. Hans wasn’t all too happy with Joey taking the credit, but he wasn’t one to complain. As he always said, ‘When in doubt, just keep drawing’.

As Hans reached the entrance to the studio, he felt a hand tug at his pant leg. He looked down to see his son looking at him. His son’s name; Henry. Henry was a nine-year-old boy who was seen to be a timid little fellow, and he had few friends. He had light brown hair and his father’s greenish-blue eyes, along with faint freckles across his cheeks. He was wearing a white long-sleeve shirt under a black wool vest, light brown shorts, and black boots.

“Okay, Henry. We’re gonna go in the studio now,” Hans said to his son. Henry just clenched onto his father’s pant leg tighter. Hans just smiled gently and put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Joey is a busy man, but he can be a nice person if you don’t catch him in a bitter mood.”

“Okay, papa,” Henry said shyly. With that, Hans went into the studio, with Henry following behind. They reached an entrance lobby of sorts, that had an animation desk, a projector, and even the company logo on the right wall. In the middle of the room, they saw a 30-something-year-old man talking with what looked like another employee. That man was Joey Drew. He was a lanky man, with brown, volumized hair that had two grey streaks in it, a mustache of the same color, and dark blue eyes. He wore a white long-sleeve shirt, long brown pants that were held up by black suspenders, and black shoes. As Hans went over to him, Henry was sticking close behind, literally. Joey saw him approach.

“Ah, there you are, Hans. We’ve been waiting for you!” Joey said in a welcoming manner. He then saw little Henry hiding behind his father and he kneeled down to Henry’s eye level. “Is this your little bundle of joy?” Joey asked Hans.

“Oh! Yeah. This is my son; Henry,” Hans replied. He then looked down to face his son. “Henry, say hi to Joey.” Henry looked at Joey, then at his father, then back at Joey. He was silent for a few seconds, but then gathered enough courage to introduce himself.

“H… hello…”

Joey patted Henry’s head and smiled.

“Don’t worry, kid,” he reassures. “I was just like you when I was your age, all shy n’ quiet. I’m pretty sure a lot of people here were.” Joey stands up and faces Hans. “Alright, Hans. We have you working double time today. Some of the others called in sick.” Hans sighs and kneels to look at Henry.

“Henry, I need you to stay in the lobby for me, okay? Papa needs to work on the cartoons you love so much,” he said to his son. Henry let go of his father’s pant leg.

“Are you sure I can’t come with you?” the young child asked. Hans sighed and put his hand on Henry’s shoulder.

“No. The other workers here don’t necessarily like being distracted.”

“But what am I supposed to do while you’re working?” Henry asked with a whine. Hans thought about it for a while, but then looked at the projector.

“Well…” Hans started. “You can watch the cartoons we already made. They should be in that drawer over by the projector.” He pointed at the bottom drawer next to the projector. Joey nodded in agreement and added, “Yeah, and please speak your mind if you think anything should be changed. Kids are our target audience.”

Henry’s eyes lit up with excitement and ran to the drawer. He opened it and saw projection reels and old concept art. Henry dug through until he saw a reel that was labeled **‘SHEEP SONGS - FINISHED’**. He remembered seeing a poster of the cartoon once and seeing the cartoon many times on television. He felt like he had a friendly connection with the tall wolf, Boris; making him his favorite character.

He picked up the reel and carried it over to the projector to put it in. He managed to put it in despite his size, and he turned on the projector, pressed play, and sat on a chair to watch the cartoon. The art design of the cartoon looked very clean and the music was very peppy and cheerful. It started out with Bendy having a picnic by himself near a tree. Then from behind the tree, Boris the Wolf was watching Bendy. He pulled out a clarinet and started playing a lullaby, making the little devil darlin’ fall asleep. Boris walked over to the picnic and started eating the food… then he saw the sleeping demon and got an idea. He pulled out a black sheep costume and started dressing up Bendy. This made Henry laugh a little bit.

When Bendy woke up, he was surprised to see that he was in a sheep costume, and Boris was laughing at him. The little demon couldn’t even stand up, making Boris laugh even harder. He stopped laughing when Bendy started rolling on top of him and rolled away. Boris became annoyed and started chasing Bendy. Henry was laughing as the screen faded to black.

After he stopped laughing, he went to go get another reel from the drawer. Then he heard what sounded like machinery from down a dark hall.

“Come on, come on! I’m so close!”

Henry could’ve sworn that he heard Joey’s voice from down the hall too. Out of curiosity, he decided to go down to investigate, despite his father telling him to stay in the lobby. As the machinery got louder, so did Joey’s outbursts.

“Dammit! Why won’t this blasted machine work!?”

Henry cringed when he heard Joey swear, and he got closer and closer to the source of the sound. He turns the corner and reaches a large, warehouse-like room with a gigantic machine in the middle of it. Joey was there with a few other employees, who were working on the machine.

“M… Mr. Joey…?” Henry asked shyly. Joey jumped, startled, and turns around.

“Who’s there!?” Joey yelled, looking frantically around him. He then saw Henry and calm himself down. “Oh… Don’t scare me like that when I’m working, kid.”

“What’s going on? What is that?” Henry asked in curiosity, pointing at the machine. The machine itself looked impressively detailed. There were pipes connected to the bottom of it, and a large nozzle with a drain underneath.

“Oh, that?” Joey replied. “Well, this is just some grown-up stuff; nothing a child would understand.” Then a scrawny handyman with orange, curly hair walked up to Joey with a disgruntled look on his face.

“Listen, Joey. If this thing floods the room with ink again, I’m outta here!” He exclaimed, now looking at the machine with worry.

“Can it, Wally!” Joey yelled. “You’re gonna scare the kid!” Just then, Henry saw that the machine’s cogs were starting to twitch very erratically.

“What does it mean when it twitches?” Henry asked curiously, with a hint of fear in his voice as he backs away. Wally does the same, saying, “Means god knows what’s about to come out.” Joey, however, looked excited as he stares at the machine’s nozzle. Then a large amount of ink suddenly pours from the machine, making Henry jump in fear and hide behind a nearby crate.

 

“Yes, YES! Come on!” Joey laughed. The ink finished pouring out of the machine, but then it started to melt into the floorboards. Joey’s smile turned into an angry frown as he slammed his fist on the railing and yelled, “GODDAMMIT!!!” The yell echoed around the room, making everyone jump. Henry was shaking in fear behind the crate and almost felt as if he was about to cry. Joey heard Henry’s shaky breathing from behind the crate and walked over to him, making the child wince in fear. “Sorry if I scared you, kid,” Joey said with a slightly guilty look. “But this machine means more than what you would think just by looking at it.” Henry started to tear up, trying not to look at Joey.

“I-I…” little Henry cried. “I want my papa...!” Suddenly, he heard someone running down the hall. The footsteps were getting louder, indicating that whoever was running was getting closer. The person who was running turned out to be Hans.

“Henry!” Hans exclaimed, seeing his son lying on the ground in fear. He grabbed his son and held him close, trying to comfort him. Henry, scared out of his mind, clenched onto his father’s button-up shirt and buried his face in it, sobbing. Hans patted his son’s back gently. “Shhhh… It’s okay… It’s okay…” he said in a comforting way, he then shot a glare at Joey, like he had a feeling that he had something to do with Henry crying. Before Joey could even say anything, Wally noticed that the machine was acting up.

“Uh, guys…?” he said nervously, pointing at the Ink Machine and getting everyone’s attention. The machine was shaking furiously until it spewed out a huge, solid blob of ink. A moment after staring at this deformed blob, it started to take form. Wally wasted no time in getting out of there as the blob took the form of a crooked-looking demon with a single cartoon glove and a white bowtie. Ink was dripping from its body and covering its face, its left leg was crooked, and it had a wide, toothy grin plastered on its face. It seemed as if it was looking at Joey. Joey backed away and ran as fast as he could.

...then Henry let out a scream of pure fear.

This alerted the inky monster. It let out a screech as it limped towards Hans and Henry, inky veins slithering on the walls. Hans held Henry tightly and ran out of the room. Suddenly an inky hand grabbed onto Hans's leg, making Hans trip and drop Henry. The ink started to pull Hans away, as Henry watched with tears in his eyes.

“PAPA!!!”

Henry couldn’t just let the ink take away his father, but he had to get away from that monster; it was still hellbent on catching him! He turned many corners and ran through many halls, then, as if it was like a miracle, he saw what looked like an emergency exit. He had high hopes that he could get away from that inky monster in time as he reached for the door handle.

...suddenly, the floor gave way under Henry and he fell down into the basement of the studio. When he finally landed on solid ground, he had scratches and bruises all over his body. He got up from the ground and looked up at where he fell from.

“H-hello? Papa? Anybody…?”

No response.

Luckily, the thing that was chasing him seemed to have given up on going after him, but that didn’t help him due to the fact that he was now lost. Maybe there was another exit somewhere? He couldn’t find any doors to go through except for one, but this door was blocked off by some rubble that would be too heavy to move. Then he noticed a flight of stairs that down below. He went down only to find a room covered in ink and a written message on the wall the said **‘THE CREATOR LIED TO US’**. What did that mean? Did Joey lie about something to whoever or whatever was down here?

Henry then saw something on a nearby desk. It was an emergency fire axe. He was reluctant to pick it up since he was just a child, but he needed to find a way back to his papa. Plus, if there were more monsters down here, it would be a big help in getting rid of them. After gathering enough courage, he picks up the axe. It was lighter than he expected.

 _‘Now to find a way out of here,’_ Henry thought. He sees a corridor blocked off by a bunch of boards, and chops through them with ease. After turning a corner and opening a door, Henry was met with a horrific sight. He saw a room with coffins propped up on the wall and ink all over the place! In the middle of the room was a large pentacle with candles surrounding it. Upon entering the room and stepping into the pentacle, Henry started to feel dizzy. He saw brief hallucinations of the Ink Machine, that inky creature, and what looked like an inky black heart.

Then little Henry dropped to the floor as his vision faded to black.


End file.
